Now, Bolsonaro's choice for environment minister appears to justify those concerns. In a tweet Sunday, Bolsonaro announced he would appoint pro-business lawyer Ricardo de Aquino Salles to the role, Reuters reported.

Salles has won the support of industry and agricultural groups, but Brazilian environmental coalition the
Climate Observatory noted he was a former member of Brazil's Rural Society and would likely promote agriculture at the expense of environmental protection. The announcement comes as the Amazon saw its worst rate of deforestation in the past decade, mostly because of illegal logging to clear the way for farming and livestock.

Bolsonaro has walked back from his initial promise to merge the environment and agricultural ministries, but
Greenpeace Brazil policy coordinator Marcio Astrini said Salles' appointment was in the same spirit.

"Jair Bolsonaro has already made it clear that he wants to reduce the Ministry of the Environment to a kind of substation of the Ministry of Agriculture. The choice of the new minister only follows this logic," Astrini
said in a statement translated from the Portuguese using Google translate.

Salles' political history sets a troubling precedent. Between 2016 and 2017, he served as secretary of environment for the state of São Paulo. During that time, he was indicted for allowing industry to exploit a nature reserve on the Tietê river,
Climate Home News reported.

Salles' past also includes founding the pro-business group
Movimento Endireita Brasil and a failed run for congress as part of the Partido Novo, a new party that also aims to improve conditions for businesses, Reuters reported. As part of his campaign, Salles displayed posters that promised to use bullets both on boars and on the left-wing land reform group MST, according to Climate Home News.

Preserving the Amazon, the world's largest rainforest and an important carbon sink, is itself essential for preventing worse climate change, but Salles is also generally dismissive of the issue, according to Climate Home News. In his first interview since his appointment was announced, he told the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo that the"discussion whether there is global warming or not is secondary."

He also raised again the prospect that Brazil might withdraw from the
Paris agreement to limit warming to "well below" two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Bolsonaro had initially pledged to withdraw before recanting, but Salles' remarks indicated the decision was still to be made.

"Let's examine carefully the most sensitive points and, once the analysis is over [we will make the decision], remembering that national sovereignty over territory is non-negotiable," he said.

Climate Home News noted that Brazil's environment ministry is not ultimately in charge of this decision, but works on the issue with the foreign office.

The world of food and drug regulation was rocked earlier this month by the news of a change in leadership at the Food and Drug Administration. Commissioner Scott Gottlieb resigned and will step down in early April. His temporary replacement is Dr. Ned Sharpless, director of the National Cancer Institute.

On Wednesday the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the first 20 chemicals it plans to prioritize as "high priority" for assessment under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Given the EPA's record of malfeasance on chemicals policy over the past two years, it is clear that these are chemicals that EPA is prioritizing to ensure that they are not properly evaluated or regulated.

Strawberries top the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list of U.S. produce most contaminated with pesticides. DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS / AFP / Getty Images

Which conventionally-grown fruits and vegetables in the U.S. are most contaminated with pesticides? That's the question that the Environmental Working Group answers every year with its "Dirty Dozen" list of produce with the highest concentration of pesticides after being washed or peeled.

A U.S. federal judge temporarily blocked oil and gas drilling on 300,000 acres of federal leases in Wyoming Tuesday, arguing that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) "did not sufficiently consider climate change" when auctioning off the land, The Washington Post reported.

A report published Wednesday names the banks that have played the biggest recent role in funding fossil fuel projects, finding that since 2016, immediately following the Paris agreement's adoption, 33 global banks have poured $1.9 trillion into financing climate-changing projects worldwide.

Sriram Madhusoodanan of Corporate Accountability speaking on conflict of interest demand of the People's Demands at a defining action launching the Demands at COP24. Corporate Accountability

By Patti Lynn

2018 was a groundbreaking year in the public conversation about climate change. Last February, The New York Times reported that a record percentage of Americans now believe that climate change is caused by humans, and there was a 20 percentage point rise in "the number of Americans who say they worry 'a great deal' about climate change."